Surprise, Surprise
by Skie Narkie
Summary: Because some things are better off not knowing. / Or, how Yohio falls in love with Miki, told in five parts.


For all intents and purposes, Yohio Lloyd can safely say that Miki Hiyama is, without a doubt, the most boldest, candid, and stuck-up girl he has ever had the displeasure of knowing.

And yet, despite - or perhaps it is _because _of this - the redheaded bane of his existence somehow manages to get under his skin in the most inconvenient of ways possible.

She makes him fall in love.

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The first time Yohio senses there might be something going on, he merely shakes his head vigorouly and tries to ignore it.

It starts with a party at Hakupo's house, a night of loud music and cheap alcohol to celebrate his sudden boom of success. Balloons are strewn across the floor, and the lights are dim and the room almost suffocatingly warm.

Yohio laughs and he dances with Lapis, giving her a playful wink as he grabs her by the wrists and the two of them spin round and round on the spot - faster and faster until they are both breathless and shouting and have to let go, doubling over, Yohio's stomach aching from laughing so hard.

He ruffles Lapis' hair playfully, his head spining and sweat beading on his brow. He is dizzy and accidentally staggers into the door frame, which makes a rather loud _thump _that is lost in the music, but leaves his shoulder sore and throbbing.

Cursing, Yohio heads into the kitchen to grab some ice for it.

He hums absent-mindedly as he rummages around in the freezer, an upbeat tune to match his equally upbeat mood.

He is just about to rejoin the party, bag of frozen peas in hand, when he hears a faint sniff - then a loud hiccup. Peering over the kitchen island, Yohio is greeted by the sight of Miki sitting on the other side, cross-legged on the cold marble floor, crumpled red solo cups scattered around her feet.

"Miki? What are you doing here?" Yohio asks, because everyone else is in the rec room playing pool or dancing with each other, and normally Miki would be amongst them, dancing alongside her sister. She's also a mean shot at pool.

The redhead looks up, and Yohio is startled to see tear tracks on her cheeks, her mascara running angry black streaks down her face. Her eyes are red-rimmed and puffy.

"Oh god - Yohio. I'm fine; I just needed a break from the party." Miki's voice is slightly hoarse, so Yohio fills a glass with water from the tap, before setting his bag of peas down on the counter in favor of grabbing a box of tissues.

Then he sits himself opposite of Miki on the floor, ignoring the cold marble of the tiles and Miki's protests to leave her alone.

"You look awful," Yohio says but smiles to let the redhead know that he is joking. Because that is what Yohio is good at - jokes and being silly, saying the wrong things at the wrong times just to get a smile out of anyone. Yohio isn't Gumi - he doesn't know how to comfort people. All he knows is how to make them laugh.

But it works, kind of. Miki gives a miserable sort of half-chuckle and takes the tissues he offers, wiping the moisture from her face.

"I know," she says, hiccuping loudly again, "I know. I really wish you weren't here to see me like this."

Yohio hands her the glass of water, and reaches to steady her fingers when they shake. Miki looks embarrassed (an incredibly rare feat), casting her gaze downwards, but she sips the water gratefully before fixing him with a tired stare.

"Aren't you going to interrogate me? Ask me what I'm doing sitting on the kitchen floor while everyone's out there partying?" She looks bitterly in the direction of the rec room.

Yohio scratches his head. "Honestly, I'm not sure if I want to know."

Miki huffs derisively, a small smile appearing on the corners of her lips.

"You're right," she says, and her eyes flicker to his for a brief moment before she is pulling herself up with the help of the countertop and making her way out of the kitchen. She pauses in the doorway, her back to him.

"It's probably best that you don't know."

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Once, they have dinner together at the local Chinese restaurant, all of the gang in attendance, noodles and dim sum and fortune cookies.

Yohio sits next to Lapis and opposite of Miki, who nibbles absent-mindedly at her sweet buns, without saying a word to anyone.

"Hey Lapis, watch this," Yohio says and, much to Lapis' amusement, he attempts to toss a dumpling with his chopsticks and catch it in his mouth. He misses completely. The dumpling soars past him and hits Dell on the side of the head.

"Dammit, Yohio!" Dell snaps, angrily wiping his hair with a serviette, "I'm going to _kill _you!"

Rolling his eyes, Yohio turns back to his plate, picking up a fortune cooking. Breaking it in two, he eagerly devours the biscuit halves before turning his attention to the little paper they had concealed.

_It is never too early, just as it is never too late._

"What does it mean?" he asks Lapis, but loses interest when the waiter brings him an iced tea.

By the end of the night, Yohio has all but forgotten about the fortune, walking home with Hakupo and Lapis. The moon shines full above their heads and the sound of their laughter reverberates in the cool evening air.

He cheerfully waves them both goodbye when they have to leave him, and he whistles merrily the last leg of his walk.

There is a figure on the footpath ahead of him and, even in the moonlight, Yohio can recognize her lucid, beautiful red hair.

"Miki?" he calls, and she turns around in surprise, pausing and waiting for him to catch up to her.

"Teru had to go pick up one of his bandmates from the airport, so he couldn't drive me," she explains, and gratefully takes his jacket, pulling it tightly around her shoulders.

"Why didn't you walk with me, Lapis, and Hakupo? You shouldn't be alone this time of night."

Miki shivers again, so Yohio motions her to stop walking so that he can reach over and do up the buttons on the jacket he lent her.

Miki looks away as he snaps them into place. "I just ... needed to be alone for a bit."

"You've been alone quite a lot lately," Yohio tells her carefully, pulling his scarf from his neck and wrapping it around hers, "You haven't been at work all week, and you barely talked to Yuuma or Gumi tonight at dinner."

Miki shrugs. Yohio sighs as they turn into her street, the light suddenly dimming as the moon slips behind a cloud.

"I'll walk you to your house," Yohio offers, suddenly all too aware of the silence and blurry shadows at every turn. "You can never be too safe this time of night."

Miki looks at him and smiles, just a little, but he can't quite be sure because it is gone as quickly as it came.

"Thank you, Yohio," she says simply.

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Throughout his high school years, Yohio has always had a bit of a crush on Lapis Aoki. Lapis is not only pretty but she's a sweetheart, has a great sense of humor, and she can do this really awesome thing where she kicks her leg straight up over her head.

For the past few days, though, Lapis has been home sick with the flu. Gumi hurriedly reassures their latest client, Daisuke - who wanted her to sing for him - that the other loids could do the job just fine. She draws up a new roster and tells Yohio sternly that Yukari is on the job tomorrow, along with Yuuma and Hakupo should she somehow fall short on Daisuke's expectations.

"Remember to tell her," she says distractedly, before pulling out her phone to dial her brother Gakupo.

Yohio waves goodbye before making his way home from where he had lunch with Gumi at the Top Cat cafe, pulling out his own mobile, too. He curses when he sees that the battery is dead.

Rather than waiting to get home and charge it, Yohio decides to take a longer route, in which he would pass both Miki's and Yukari's house and the _VocaReader_, so he could tell his friends of the job tomorrow. Although, to be honest, he is mostly eager to stop in at the Confectionery that Hakupo had told him about the other day, which is also conveniently located on that route.

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Miki and Yukari lives in a large white bungalow, not far from the _VocaReader _office, and it is Kiyoteru that answers the door when Yohio rings the bell.

"Come in, come in," he says with a cheery smile, "Yukari's not here at the moment; probably off somewhere with Matsudappoiyo. Miki's just in the dance studio, however."

Yohio follows his directions - down the hall, second to the right - and he knocks three times before letting himself in.

"Yohio?" Miki looks at him in surprise from where she is stretching on the wall bar. "What are you doing here?"

"I came over because I needed to tell Yukari that she's going to meet up with Daisuke tomorrow," Yohio says absent-mindedly, watching as Miki finishes her warm-ups and starts doing pirouettes and pliés and god knows what because he is rather distracted by the way her red ponytail swings as she dances and the smooth, milky skin of her stomach that is revealed by her too-short tank top.

Miki pauses in her routine, looking over her shoulder at him. "Thanks for telling me, Yohio. I'll let Yukari know when she gets home."

Yohio nods, unblinking, before reluctantly turning to leave. Miki resumes her dancing.

In the hallway he turns back for a split second, his hand poised to shut the door. Yohio looks back at the room more out of habit than anything.

And Miki suddenly kicks her leg up, straight over her head, exactly like how Lapis does it, but with infinitesimally more grace.

Yohio's jaw drops.

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When he wanders into the _VocaReader_ office, half an hour later, Yuuma stares at him in puzzlement.

"What's up with you?" he asks. "You look rather stunned."

Yohio just shakes his head.

"It's probably best that you don't know," he says with a wry grin.

.

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.

A frosty winter day in the middle of February sees Yohio's breath visible in the cold, dry air, and Miki's hands trembling in their gloves as she clutches a paintbrush between frozen fingers.

They are painting the fence of an elderly neighbor of Gumi's, a rather unpleasant yellow color that hurts Yohio's eyes more and more every time he looks at it.

It is just the two of them today, and the first time he has seen Miki in the past week. There is a cold going around and, much to Yohio's dismay, Lapis and Yuuma are both out sick with it.

"I can't feel my damn fingers," Miki growls through chattering teeth, "They're so numb I can barely hold my stupid paintbrush."

Yohio looks sidelong at her, huddled miserably beside him in two thick coats and a knitted scarf, her red hair covered partially with woolly grey beanie.

He reaches out and tweaks the bobble. "Lighten up, Princess," he jokes, laughing as she huffs and swats his hand away. "It's not so bad. I mean, you've got me for company, right?" he tells her with a wink.

"Right." Miki rolls her eyes, but she is noticeably brighter. "You know, we should just ditch and go for some coffee. Let Chicky and Gumball paint the rest of this tomorrow."

Yohio chuckles. "As tempting as that sounds, I think Ppoiyo would have my head for painting only a quarter of the fence and leaving the rest to him."

Miki laughs. "Sounds about right."

Yohio finishes his pickett and moves to start on a new section of fence, but stumbles as his foot catches on a paint can.

_"Yohio!"_

Miki is looking at him in bewilderment and shock and with what looks suspiciously like humor in her eyes.

And then she laughs and laughs, and Yohio peers down at his body from where he is sprawled on his back on the grass to see the entirety of his chest and stomach covered in horrible yellow paint.

"Oh, Hio..."

Miki offers him her hand, and she is surprisingly strong enough to heave him up. There is paint splattered on his face, paint on his hair, paint on the damp dewy grass underneath Miki's boots.

And there is paint on Miki, too, because Yohio is laughing with her at his clumsiness and he reaches out to steady himself on the slippery grass and accidentally leaves a bright yellow handprint on the shoulder of her coat.

And then Miki is yelling, but she is laughing, too, and somehow they get into a paint fight, him grabbing another can and throwing it over her, Miki tackling him to the ground with a shriek.

They don't stop until they are both completely out of breath and covered head to toe in splatters of yellow.

"There's more paint on us than on the fence," Miki laughs, and runs a hand through her mussed fiery-red hair. She leaves more paint than she removes, but doesn't seem to mind.

Yohio bends down and grabs her beanie from where it had fallen in the midst of their fight. Miraculously, it is free of yellow splotches. Well, it is until Yohio's fingers come in contact with it.

He pulls it gently over Miki's hair, carefully adjusting the bobble.

"You have paint on your nose," Miki giggles, and Yohio rubs at it sheepishly with the back of his hand. Miki has paint on her face, too, but somehow manages to make it look like she means it to be there.

"You know what? We should really ditch this and go for dinner," Yohio suggests, and Miki raises an eyebrow at him.

"Really? Yohio, we're covered in paint."

Yohio grins at her. Feeling brave, he leans down and kisses her on the cheek.

"Don't worry, Mii-chan. You still look like a Princess."

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It ends on a breezy spring day in mid-October, the birds chirping in the trees and the sun's rays dappled as they shine gently upon Yohio as he makes his way to town, pencil in hand and sketchpad tucked under his arm.

It is there he runs into Miki, lying on her back at the base of a large oak tree, red hair fanned around her head, reading a book with a tranquil smile on her lips.

"Yohio," she greets simply.

Yohio nods hello and settles down beside her. "Bit early to be out, don't you think?" The sun has barely risen.

"It's never too early," Miki counters absent-mindedly, flicking a page in her book.

Yohio stretches back against the tree and begins sketching a sparrow that has come out of its nest and is pecking at the ground for worms.

It is only when the sun is beating down on upon them, high in the mid-morning sky that Miki speaks again, turning to him with her book held over her eyes to shield them from the glare.

"Do you want to go for breakfast?" she asks, and smiles radiantly when he nods assent.

They find a table near the window of the Top Cat, and Miki nibbles at a bagel thoughtfully whilst he digs into French toast.

They inadvertently spend the day together, just the two of them - taking a stroll across the back fields, window shopping, and eating club sandwiches while sitting on the grass at the park.

When the sun begins to set, Miki reluctantly tells him she has to head home for dinner.

"Thanks for today." His ears perk at her confession. She is sincere. "I had fun. Y'know, hanging out with you. And stuff."

"Me too," Yohio agrees, and he means it. "We don't hang out often enough. Just the two of us, I mean."

"Well," Miki says, and she places a hand on his shoulder. "It's never too late to start."

And then she kisses him, leaning up on her tiptoes; just a sweet peck of her lips, surprisingly warm and tasting faintly of cherries.

"See ya, Hio."

He waves to her goodbye, unable to stop the goofy smile from spreading across his face.

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Days later, he remembers his fortune from that night at the restaurant.

He supposes he ought to pay more attention to his next one.

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**_Author's Notes:_**

A little rushed towards the end and I apologize for that, but I really wanted to make up for what the other story. This pairing is tied with another top favorite OTP (Mayu and Longya), and I wanted to make something else with them. Sorry if this ended up being a disappointing read. OTL


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